TOP 100 ENGLAND SITES
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| Legal adviser duped couples into thinking they were divorced A legal adviser tricked two estranged couples into believing they had been divorced in order to pocket their fees. telegraph.co.uk |
Iraq inquiry: Geoff Hoon will face questions on pre-war planning Foreign Secretary told PM in 2002 that war would be illegal, unpopular and unwise telegraph.co.uk |
Government will oppose radical reforms to parliament, Harriet Harman says Proposals would guarantee MPs can vote on and debate key amendments to billsThe government today said it would oppose some of the most radical reforms to parliament proposed to give more power to backbenchers, including reforms designed to guarantee MPs can vote on and debate key amendments to bills.At present swaths of legislation leave the Commons without debate.Harriet Harman, the leader of the Commons, made the revelation as she announced that, on 23 February, MPs will be able to debate the package of reforms tabled last year by the Wright committee on Commons reform. Ministers claim they have accepted at least 20 of the committee's proposals.Harman disclosed at business questions that MPs would only be able to vote on those aspects of the package with which the government agreed.The government has said it will support the proposals made by Tony Wright's committee for the election of select committee chairmen, and for a new business committee, rather than government whips, to arrange non-governmental business.Harman said it was best that the reforms were only pursued if there was a consensus.The Wright committee had proposed the business committee be responsible for the order of government as well as non-governmental business, arguing that parliament, rather than the executive, ought to decide how legislation is debated.Opposition MPs fear that Harman has selected a procedure for voting on 23 February that will see a specific measure fall if at the end of the debate a single MP verbally shouts their objection.Members of the Wright committee are urgently discussing the issue with ministers in the hope of getting them to change their minds. If a single MP did object, Harman would then have to find further time for the measure to be debated in a format where the issue could be decided by a vote of all MPs.Wright committee members are urging the government to allow a more simple procedure whereby MPs should be able to table motions for the 23 February debate and then have them voted on.It is possible that the Wright committee will reconvene to express its objections to the way in which the government is handling the issue.House of CommonsHarriet HarmanPatrick Wintourguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
On the Move: Visualising Action at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art Visualising Action at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art. telegraph.co.uk |
'You're stigmatised if you live on a council estate' The Aylesbury estate in Elephant and Castle, south-east London, is being regenerated – but its problems are not as bad as media reports suggest, residents sayThe Aylesbury estate, whose concrete towers, playgrounds and walkways sprawl across 28 hectares (70 acres) of south-east London, has assumed a dual role over the five decades of its existence. Not only is it home to nearly 10,000 people, it also serves a monolithic reminder of the Âproblems of social housing.Hours after winning the 1997 Âelection, Tony Blair rushed to the estate to Âpromise its 7,500 "forgotten people" that they would be among those New Labour would remember as it Âtackled social exclusion.But over the next few years the ÂAylesbury became journalistic Âshorthand for inner-city crime, squalor and deprivation, with the Daily Mail describing a walk around its precincts as "like visiting hell's waiting room".The Mail's description is not popular with Southwark council – whose £2.4bn regeneration programme was accepted by the government at the end of last year – nor with all the estate's residents.Jean Bartlett, who manages the Tykes Corner parents' and toddlers' group, which sits in the heart of the Aylesbury, accepted there were problems on the estate, but said the press and public focused only on the negative side of social housing. "The trouble is that you're Âstigmatised if you live on a council estate, but me and the other residents are trying to take that stigma away," she said. "The reason this estate is being redone is the condition of the Âproperties. They're past their sell-by date – you only have to look at them."But Bartlett, who has lived on the estate for 34 years, said the Aylesbury was not plagued by the kind of inequality laid out in the Hills report."Both my girls have left the estate, have qualifications and own their own properties," she said. "I got my qualifications when I was 50 and there were opportunities for me to do it. If you're willing to do it, it's there."The estate's reputation, she said, was worse than its reality. "We find it unfair that the media always come here and think we're so bloody deprived. We're not. Money has been ploughed into the estate though the New Deal and Sure Start. We're not the only ones."Leighann Melsom, who stood in the doorway of her flat, keeping an eye on her baby son, was similarly phlegmatic."I think the gap has widened," she said. "But life can be a struggle and I'm not so hard done by." But the 26-year-old did feel the Âgovernment could do more for her and her family. "I've been quite lucky with work, but they don't help you much with childcare," she said. "I don't want my son to be brought up here, to be truthful."Isha Samurum, who was taking her daughter, aged two and a half, to a friend's, was firmer in her views. "I have no choice but to live here," she said. "There's a big gap between the rich people and the poor people and I think the government isn't doing enough – they need to improve the whole estate."Samurum, who works in catering at Kings College and has lived on the Aylesbury for five years, was equally blunt about her daughter's future. "She will have to fight hard. If she doesn't, she won't get anything."HousingLocal governmentTony BlairSam Jonesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |